Topic- Celebration over the city’s new internal linkage/ merged cities. Details - In 1897 at midnight (New Year’s) the nation’s first-and forth-largest cities would merge into a super-city, greater NY. (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx) -Thousands of New Yorkers cascaded to lower Manhattan streets in celebration despite the cold -Other Metropolises had been engaging in similar combinations, but New York’s would be the greatest Topic- The master of ceremonies was not Mayor Strong it was William Randolph Hearst who stepped in and took the lead. Details -Mayor Strong suggested a funeral service for the old city rather than a jamboree for the new one , Hearst had stepped in to volunteer as producer and ringmaster -Hearst raised funds from his own pocket mostly purchasing fireworks, marching and singing societies. -Crowds formed in Union Square prepared to accompany the long line of brilliantly illuminated floatsdown to City Hall Topic- The road to Consolidation (merge) Eve had not been an easy one Details -Some Brooklynites feltlike the victims of imperial expansion they had tried and failed to halt -Tammy Hall was undecided , despite that Croker and company would control the new colossus What is Tammy Hall? -Even the consolidation’s sponsors, the businessmen and professionals over at the Chamber of Commerce and Citizens Union were apprehensive about their future Topic- Manhattan’s dominance over Brooklyn had continued even after it became a city -Manhattan first gained dominance when the Dongan Charter and Montgomerie Charters granted it domain over the East River -When Brooklyn gained city status in 1830, NY maintained its privileges -But eventually Brooklyn’s community leaders successfully demanded independence Topic- In 1857, the state combined Manhattan and Brooklyn’s police, fire and health departments into joint metropolitan boards. -It was in the course of pursuing Haussmannesque authority for the Central Park Commission. -People hoped the merger of the departments might evolve into a more systematic consolidation -Green hoped to convince the Westchester and uptown property owners that comprehensive development was in their common interest. He hoped that by merging the two cities it allowed for the developing of bridges, roads, and sewers on both sides of the Harlem River. ANNEXATION AND ITS ENEMIES PG 2 Topic- Proposal that Manhattan should annex the portion of the mainland just across the Harlem River -Green alluded what was the obvious end point of such a proposal: forming a metropolitan out of the distinct political entities grouped around the harbor. Who is this Andrew Green? -It was desirable to bring the city of NY and County of Kings, a part of Westchester County and part of Queens and Richmond, including suburbs of the city, under one common municipal government (city), to be arranged in departments under a single executive head. Topic- Green’s plans short-circuited by Tweed’s city charter -Tweed abolished the state boards and deprived Green of his power -Following Green’s logic, he gave his new Department of Public Parks the power to street mapping into West Farms and Morrisania and eastward into the Bronx River. Who is Tweed? What is street mapping and how does it help Tweed? -Many powerful residents had their interests intertwined with Manhattan and supported full scale annexation. -They wanted to build connecting bridges, and make Port Morris a major transportation hub. Topic- The people of Manhattan had divisive feelings about the annexation -The people protested the notion of paying to enhance the life of suburban commuters -The people balked (retreated) at Bronx competitors, objections were alleviated (eased) when local property owners agreed to shoulder half of the improvement costs. -Opponents countered that annexation would corral (enclose; hold) the fleeing middle class back into the taxpaying fold and provide room for downtown to expand and boost upper Manhattan’s real estate values. -Annexation passed on Jan 1, 1874 and the city’s territory jumped from 14,000 to 22,000 acres with 30,000 new citizens. Topic- Consolidation outlook surfaced in Brooklyn. -In 1874, property owners, developers, and business men formed Municipal Union Society of the City of Brooklyn and the County of Kings. -They sought to merge the 2 great cities (Man.) and 5 county towns to enhance property values, end boundary disputes, and sustain the areas’ commercial supremacy. -Consolidation was defeated in the Senate however Topic- Andrew Haswell Green’s bridge projects -Green was one of the original commissioners of the Brooklyn Bridge. -Green helped to get a bridge thrown across the Harlem River in 1886 -In 1890, he was appointed to a commission charged with planning a railroad bridge across Hudson. Topic- 1880 census’ volumes on social statistics -Suggested that a greater city had in effect already come into being -Also said that the population was separated by “physical and political lines” that had little influence on the character of the people, their industries, and their modes of life. “IMPERIAL DESTINY” PG 3 Topic- A statistical consolidation had been wrought after the Henry George campaign -The campaign was jolted by the challenge of the radical and labor movements in NYC -George’s campaign joined Green’s campaign and George’s project began to rumble toward realization Topic- NY’s Chamber of Commerce urged that Brooklyn be added to NY. -They expressed concern that the port (NY) was losing ground to more efficient facilities of New Orleans, Baltimore, Boston, and Philadelphia. -And between 1880 and 1890 NY did suffer a decline in the country’s exports and imports. -Efforts to coordinate port administration, build new bridges and improve city services were ruined by divided political jurisdictions (influence) -To aid planning piers, warehouses and transportation the chamber urged putting NY and Brooklyn under “one general scheme of municipal rule” Topic- In 1888 the Real Estate Record and Builders Guide came out for consolidation. -It urged that only a centralized authority could push through the improvements that would boost land values and provide insurance companies, savings banks, and estate trustees with profitable investment opportunities. Topic- In 1888, Mayor Hewitt, a Chamber of Commerce Stalwart issued a proposal for a vast and coordinated program of public improvements. -He said that imagination can place no bounds to the future growth of the city in business, wealth, and blessings of civilizations. -Since the harbor was protected from injury the channels of its approach straightened and deepened. -With its wharves and docks improved, its streets paved and cleansed, attractive parks, and a system of taxation, it would be free it come and go “as the air of heaven”. Topic-People feared that inaction of the “imperial urban vision” would leave the field to rival empire builders. I don’t understand what they mean by that -Chicago was one of the rival empire builders -In 1880, Chicago swallowed up 133 square miles of suburban terrain -In 1890, a census revealed that Chicago’s Midwestern metropolis (population 1,100,000) was catching up quickly to Manhattan’s. Topic- What happens if Chicago or any other city had a larger population than NY -European banking and export firms would shift their American branches to that city. -Corporate headquarters would soon follow along with professional firms. -Manufacturing would steal away -NY’s property values would decline -It would be similar to what happened to Philadelphia, once of America’s most important city, had been overshadowed by its Hudson River rival. Topic- If Chicago’s population exceeded NY’s it would relegate NY to secondary status in other places. -NY’s art, culture, and politics would become secondary status -This fear arose in 1890, when Congress let Midwesterners host the celebration of Columbus’ voyage. The 2 colossi had been competing for that furiously and defeat for NY was another indicator of the metropolitan decline. Topic- immigration -Immigration was important but inconstant and slow -Chicago like Paris and London had become greater and prosperous by accumulation of number, expansion, annexation, and consolidation GREEN’S DREAM OF NEW YORK Topic- Andrew Haswell established a Greater New York Commission -The Greater New York Commission was established to examine the issue of consolidation -The new body elected Green president and Stranahan vice president -In a series of addresses and memorials Green came up with arguments on his behalf Topic- Green began at the beginning; he described what it was like when the European settlers had settled there -The three islands the Europeans settled (Manhattan, Long, and Staten) had close “indissoluble” relations with each other. -During the fall, natural unity gave way to artificial divisions: states, cities, counties. Waterfalls were once “bonds of union”, but became “symbols of division” Topic- Green then continued to describe how it was absurd to treat rivers as barriers. -Green pointed out that chief cities of the world, London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Prague were municipally and commercially unified by rivers. -Under existing political arrangements protection of navigable rivers was the concern of all. -The tides marched through all the municipals collecting and distributing everywhere. Topic- Harbor level problems that could not be attended to by municipalities. -Garbage smoke, stench, bad drainage, noxious manufactories could not be fixed by municipalities. -In the absence of a super government that could make a corrective plan for the entire port, the area would continue to suffer. Topic- The situation above was unnecessary and preventable. -Maybe long ago when there wasn’t enough c commerce to go around there might’ve been sense in hoarding territorial advantages. -But now with benefits and interests becoming interlocking, the prosperity of one territory promoted the prosperity of other territories. -Brooklyn’s lawyers did more business in NY courts than in their own. -Merchants mansions were paid for with the profits they had made from sales\ trade in NY Topic- The common problem Brooklyn and NY shared was the port’s vulnerability to modern foreign fleets. -Local divisions only impeded the combined effort that alone could induce the national government to provide adequate defenses. Topic- Access to the interior was another common predicament -Green reminded people that NY had become the nation’s chief emporium because it commanded foreign commerce and controlled routes to continental markets. -Norfolk’s was a better harbor but it remained a summer watering place because it lacked inland connection. -New connections were essential; crucially a bridge across the Hudson, a greater NY could muster the resources to act without waiting for state of national governments. Topic- Planning the city’s physical development was as critical as arranging its commercial future. -NY had to prepare for the immigrants that would clearly be flooding in the future from overseas and countrywide. -Urbanization was rapidly speeding -If the process of incorporating this population was left to the pell- mell development (I Don’t Get That) the results would be as inadequate to the needs of future generations as the colonial era streets of Manhattan were to the present one. Topic- Planning the whole area a single unit, like what Green had in mind but smaller, would ensure better relations with centers and suburbs. -Only if a greater city controlled its outlying territories could reserve them for healthful parks, rather than having them eaten up piecemeal. -Only a Greater City could solve the difficult question of taxation of non residents. Topic- As Green noted, lawbreakers were “cosmopolitan” -If taxpayers could easily cross city lines so could criminals. -Only a unified metropolitan police command check them Topic- Green believed that NY was in danger from modern combinations of capital like monopolies. -Green was extremely wary about the growth of corporations. Topic- The rise and impact of monopolies was nowhere more evident than in cities. -A citizen buys food from one monopoly, water from another, light from a third, and heat from a fourth, works on the road of a fifth, is paid in cash from a sixth, has his life insured by a seventh, and is buried in the grounds of an eighth -Green insisted that modern forms of corporation be regulated and controlled b y governmental intervention. Topic- The consequences of insufficient purview were most apparent in the case of Green’s bête moiré -Railroad corporations one shared with merchants, populists, labor unions, and social grospelers -While it was true that their lines made cities possible by allowing them to draw upon the resources and markets of vast hinterland -They also forced their way into cities plowing through any area of their choosing, laying tracks with no regard for public welfare and laying tracks with regard for street patterns. Topic-The only interests that were against consolidation were people who carry on a war against organized forces and capitalism. -Green had nothing much to say about issues like slums and sweatshops that agitated working people Topic- Green was hopeful about the future outcome of the war between the corporate power and the power of the people because it showed evolutionary laws at work -Evolutionary laws at work were always found in the history of great cities especially NY -Those developments were equally part of mankind’s transition from barbarianism to civilization. Topic- There were no guarantees that “scheme of civilization is beyond the hazards of deterioration” -Faulty government divisions jeopardized progress. -NY still had “sachems” who clung to traditions of barbarian times What re sachems? -Only through struggle could evolutionary destiny be attained Topic- Green urged NY to recognize and grasp its imperial destiny. -He realized that there were those that believed his unification project was irrational. -NY had become the second city in the world that refused to claim its title -Green had said that cities were factors of empire. The imperial city won a honorable renown which they cannot avoid accepting. IMPERIUM OR COLONY PG 7 Topic- Green and his Greater NY commissioners proceeded to map out the precise dimensions of their proposed super city -Thy included all the NY States territories fronting on the harbor, added enough of Queens to embrace potential rival ports such as Jamaica and Little Neck bays, an threw in enough Kings and Westchester counties to provide housing. Topic- Oppositions to the merger -Upstate Republicans who feared creating a monster metropolis. -Tammy politicians also shuddered at the thought of trying to organize such a vast territory. -Northern Manhattan and North Side (Bronx) developers, who dreaded a diversion of resources to Canarsie and Flatlands. -The most obdurate opponents came from Brooklyn itself, more precisely the Angelo- Protestant community in Brooklyn Heights. Topic- The Angelo- Protestant community had a peculiar relationship with Manhattan. -Middle class Brooklynites liked to think that embodied New England virtues. They favored cities of homes and churches that were free from millionaires and the fashionably wicked ways of 5th Avenue, free from huddled immigrant masses, the town prided itself on its modern cultural appearances: parks, opera houses, clubs, educational institutes, museums, newspapers, and a historical society. -Keeping Manhattan at rivers length would preserve this lovely way of life. Topic- The amount of Protestants in each city. -52.75% in New York to 40% in Brooklyn Topic- New buildings in Brooklyn -Montague Street’s residential buildings had given way to banks, real estate offices, insurance companies and law firms. -New public buildings were everywhere -Fulton Street in 1893 was crowded with hotels, warehouses, newspaper offices, theatres, and stores. -Real estate values had zoomed to high levels. -A new satellite commercial district had emerged between City Hall and Flatbush Avenue, thick with department stores, power stations, fire headquarters, libraries, and churches. Topic- Piers remained crucial to the booming Brooklyn. -In a week in 1886, the ships along Brooklyn’s wharves and piers had carried a combined cargo of roughly 45,000 tons, compared to the mere 122,000 or so tons -By 1897 an average of four thousand ships unloads cargoes annually Topic- Manufacturing and the processing of agricultural commodities reached record levels. -Half the sugar consumed in the United States was refined in Brooklyn -Almost all the oil for the Atlantic seaboard was refined in Williamsburg and Long Island City. -Bakeries and breweries drew grain elevators with four times the capacity of Manhattan’s and its myriad ironworks and factories made Brooklyn the fourth largest industrial city in the country. Topic- The economic expansion that commenced with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge -The city’s population had gone from 570,000 in 1880 to 800,000 in 1890, and by 1894 it was approaching 900,000. -This demographic explosion had in turn generated a frenzied building boom. Williamsburg was thriving -Greenpoint’s population had tripled between 1880 and 1890 -New Utrecht, only recently a farming town, had been transformed by the arrival of the Second avenue trolley, and thousands of houses were going up in real estate developments Topic- Most people presiding over this Brooklyn and the run of prosperity wanted consolidation because without it they knew it was all going to halt. -Merchants, Manufactures, hotel proprietors, bankers, realestate developers, large retailers, warehousers, lawyers, speculators, manufactures, , and streetcar company presidents came together at a public meeting in the Real Estate Exchange and formed the Brooklyn Consolidation League in 1893 to fight for ties with Manhattan. Topic- The Brooklyn Bridge was a casualty of its own wild success. -In 1890 over forty million people used it, a quarter million each day. -Men fought women and children for places in cars and the weaker were forced to walk over or take the ferry. Topic- There was no through transport across the Brooklyn Bridge -Manhattan transit cars traversed the bridge, dumped their passengers, turned around and returned to Manhattan and vice versa for Brooklyn trolleys. -Neither the metropolitan nor the BRT was prepared to establish the coherent, integrated, vastly expanded rapid transit system that was key to keeping real estate values surging. Topic- The water crisis in Brooklyn was that Brooklyn was about to run dry. -In 1896 its water system was delivering 94 million gallons a day. Sober estimates suggested demand would reach that level within three years -Some people were already experiencing shortages -Wells had been sunk down to suck water from layers of gravel 150 feet deep, and the city was pumping in 50 million gallons a day from wells and streams of Long Island, but the remaining expedient was about to be foreclosed Topic- In January 1896 Alfred Tredway White, urged Brooklyn to buy land in central Suffolk -He suggested that Eastern Long Island’s streams and watershed beneath its pine barrens might bring in an additional 80 million gallons a day. -Suffolk’s farmers, baymen, and homeowners had no intention of letting that happen having witnessed the ecological impact extractions to date. -In June 1896 Suffolk went to Albany and got a law preventing Brooklyn from drawing off its water without the approval of the majority of the county supervisors. -Without a new source of supply Brooklyn could look forward to outbreaks of epidemic or an unquenchable fire that might lay half the city in ashes. Topic- New York on the other hand had a large supply of water. -The original Croton Aqueduct’s capacity of 90 million gallons a day had been exceeded by the early 1880s. -Thanks to Green’s lobbying efforts , a New Croton Aqueduct had been authorized in 1883 and began in 1885 and completed in 1893 -It had already expanded carrying capacity to 300 million gallons daily and plans were afoot to build new dams and reservoirs What is Croton Aqueduct? -Croton’s 90 million and Bronx River’s 20 million could supply 400 million gallons per day enough for 4 million people or a million more than the combined population of Brooklyn and NY. -Immediate relief via connecting pipes under the East River was only a consolidation away. Topic- Development in Brooklyn had required immense expenditures on roads, lighting, sewer mains and the like but Brooklyn soon wouldn’t be able to afford any of those. -The post bridge expansion had been very costly for Brooklyn had been very costly for Brooklyn and it was about to be burdened with the debts of several Kings County towns. -As a result Brooklyn’s debts were very high. -Some banks had already rejected its bonds. The depression was not helping its revenues, and it seemed that rather than expanding services Brooklyn would have to lay off many workers. Topic- The problem was that Brooklyn’s narrow revenue base was composed essentially of residential housing. -In 1891 Brooklyn’s population was fully half that of New York’s but it had only a fourth as much taxable property. -NY was home to big corporations even companies that did business in Brooklyn paid taxes in Manhattan Topic- In 1894 NY’s debt was still below its limit while Brooklyn had been forced to limit its capita spending -Brooklyn’s capita spending was $9.75 a head while NY’s was $22.46 and still raising taxes steadily. -Brooklynites paid an average$2.85 per hundred dollars of property to Manhattanites’ $1.82 -To citizens who said that the wealthy could afford higher taxes, the BCL countered that the owners would pass such increases on to renters, tradesmen, clerks, and shopgirls Topic- Plans that could be used to lower taxes in Brooklyn. -Consolidation would allow construction of another cross river pipeline. -The restaurant money flow would fertilize bridges, tunnels, waterworks, parks, roadways, rapid transit, and jobs. -Edward C. Graves pointed out all this in his BCL pamphlet called “How Taxes in Brooklyn Can Be Reduced One-Half” Topic- BCL argued that unification would not bring the “horde of plug-ugly politicians that control New York” -The combinations of the virtuous of Brooklyn with the best men of Manhattan would overwhelm the politicos -Greater NY would be so immense that no ring could possibly control it. -And for those who feared the evils of Manhattan’s slums and costs of welfare, Edward Bradford of BCL wrote there was no escaping such ills in an event THE GREAT DEBATE Topic- In March 1893 William Gaynor led a 200 man BCL delegation on board a charter train to Albany -They all presented all these weighty arguments to the legislature, only to see the measure killed by Brooklyn’s representatives who took orders from their boss McLaughlin. -The BCL plunged into politics merging with the fall’s Good Government, anti- McLaughlin and anti -McKane. -Both causes triumphed and the new delegation of Brooklyn’s representatives was solidly behind consolidation. -So Andrew Green submitted a bill in February 1894 that called for submitting the issue to a nonbinding referendum which sailed through both houses. Topic- The pros and cons took their cases to the electoral marketplace and the battle ground widened. -In Manhattan among those forces calling for a yes vote were the City Club, the Good Government Clubs, leading commercial associations, and most major papers. -Adding to consolidation’s appeal among these wealthy men was the argument advanced by municipal efficiency advocates like Albert Shaw Topic- Consolidation was presented as a device for achieving the circumscription of democracy -Municipal power was urged to be invested in taxpayers only. -Simone Sterne, a lawyer as a forefront on consolidationist advocates argued that they must stop organizing on the basis of arbitrary population and organize on the basis of interests. Topic- For Manhattan masses, proponents stressed the benefits of lebensraum. What is lebensraum? -Better off clerks, bookkeepers, salesmen, mechanics, and operatives, suggested the Real Estate would be able to flee congested apartments to modest free standing cottages available in Brooklynat $25 a month -While this would not eliminate the slums, it would separate the “industrious and self respecting poor” from the less regenerate people that surround them. Topic- In 1894, to extend the influence of Good Government over the rest of Kings County, Brooklyn called for the annexation of the 17th century Dutch and English colonies that still had their independence. -Gaining control of Gravesend’s Coney was a major concern. -They wanted to rescue the island from barbarism and that would mean that it would be made part of the limits and jurisdiction of Brooklyn. Topic- Passage of the referendum in the BCL -Given the BCL’s multidimensional and extremely well funded campaign, it appeared that even in Brooklyn the referendum was heading for early passage. -A BCL canvass of selected districts tat spring showed 64 percent of voters in favors of consolidation. Topic- Then came the Lexow investigation of corruption among Manhattan’s police and politicians. -Many Brooklynites backed away from this idea -Between May and November of 1894 the eposes dragged on, hundreds of columns and cartoons appeared in the anti-consolidation press warning of the horrors that would flow from incorporation into a Tammy run super city. Topic- In November 1894 the referendum went to the voters in Manhattan -In Manhattan 96,938 voted for consolidation, 59,959 against. -The pro forces did best in upper and middle class districts but did worst in poor districts and Tammy strongholds. Topic- the referendum went to voters in Queens , Long Island, and Staten Island. -Over 60% of electors voted for consolidation with the greatest tallies in urbanized areas closest to Manhattan -Long Island was counting on reaping such benefits as Blackwell Island’s bridge, a multitude of new streets, and the assumption of Manhattan of its substantial debt. -On Staten Island 5,531 were for consolidation 1, 5?? Against it. Topic- The referendum went to voters in eastern districts of the Bronx -Mount Vernon declined -A larger majority of Westchester said no, but only by one vote -Eastchester, Pelham and the remainder of the territory said yes. Topic- The referendum went to voters in Brooklyn -It passed in Brooklyn too -The final tally was 64,744 for merger and 64,467 against -Ironically it was the newly conquered colonies of Gravesend and New Utrecht that overcame the negative majority of Brooklyn’s imperial center Topic- After the election the opponents formed a League of Loyal Citizens -The League assembled their own bankers, merchants, landlords, reformers, and clergymen -They launched a campaign to block consolidation at state level. -In pamphlets, leaflets, circulars, and a weekly bulletin called Greater Brooklyn, the League attacked Manhattan as a social and political failure -They expressed doubts that a Manhattan dominated Greater NY would never distribute Brooklyn of its fair share of anything. Topic- The things the League fought for and against -The League appealed to the traditions of self government -They were against a centralizing state. -They sought to anger middle class citizens against big business Topic- The League also appealed to municipal patriotism -They recalled the days when Washington’s army saved the Union and defeated the consolidation attempted against American liberty. -They denounced consolidationist- minded gentlemen as people who considered the city as a mere convenience on the order of a trolley car What are they trying to say with this comparison? Topic- The League’s effect on the referendum -In 1895 the league claimed a membership of 50,000, stormed Albany and succeeded in setting aside the referendum’s verdict -The merger movement, apart from a decision to bring the eastern Bronx on board, was dead. Topic- The Bill of 1896 -In 1896, Platt rammed a bill through the legislature calling for the consolidation of the territories Green’s commission had proposed -This bill was to take effect in January 1, 1898 -The new law empowered Republican Governor to appoint a nine member panel to draft a new charter -As required the bill was submitted to mayors of the affected cities. Topic- The bill of 1896 was vetoed -Brooklyn’s Frederick Wurster vetoed it -Mayor Strong also vetoed it along with the Chamber of Commerce that were allied to the Strong administration -It was believed that the deal was too favorable to Brooklyn -Maybe Manhattan payers would get stuck with the tab for improvements in the Bronx or be forced to shoulder debts racked up by villages in Queens. Topic- Platt pressed ahead relentlessly with the re-passage of the bill -Levi Morton wanted to be president and Thomas Collier Platt was the only man who could help him with the nomination at the Republican Convention in 5 weeks -Morton signed the bill on May 11, 1896 -Greater NY had arrived but nobody had any idea what it would look like. Topic- The governor appointed the Charter Commission -It consisted of 10 Republicans, and 5 Democrats -It included both notable consolidationists like Andrew Haswell Green (though he would fall sick and be unable to participate in the drafting process.) -The commission was made of mostly lawyers, politicians, and men of property. Topic- The commission came up with an immense document that served as a series of compromises. -It strengthened the mayor and the Board of Estimate -It retired the Common Council and replaced it with a 2 chambered municipal assembly -This was all intended to satisfy the desire of the League by creating a decentralized, local self government. -It also gave boss Platt 4 potential???? (Cut off) outside Manhattan should Tammy manage to hold on to New York County. Topic- Public reactions of the charter commissioner’s new changes -The commissioners pleased home rulers by shifting the right to grant railway contracts/franchises from the state legislature to the municipal assembly and permitting the city to impose conditions on owners of shoreline property. -Developers appreciated the creation of a Board of public improvements and their public works throughout the city. -Housing reformers applauded the charter’s establishment of a uniform building code for all 5 boroughs. -And the reformers were delighted when Commissioner Seth Low wrote in a provision that explicitly banned an outdoor relief (apart from subsides to the blind) including the free handouts of fuel supplies they had been trying to outlaw. -The charter would force Richmond and Queens to terminate their programs, and Manhattan to cut off coal. -After one last mayoral veto from William Strong had been overcome, the Charter of Greater New York was presented to Governor Frank Black for his signature which he affixed on May 5, 1897 -By the rainy day of December 31, 1897 the city was poised for transformation. Topic- Effects of consolidation -JP Morgan and his rival companies would consolidate rival companies into giant corporations -A merger movement from 1897 to 1904 would forge the modern American capitalist economy, of which NY would be the headquarters -Greater NY would undertake mammoth building projects, creating the communications of bridges, railways, water tunnels, and power lines, that would consolidation a constitutional artifact -Its populace would be swollen with massive immigration, move along with new rapid transit lines, filling out Brooklyn, creating an instant city in the Bronx. -Culture wars would continue, with upper and middle class consolidating their museums and libraries -The city’s commercial culture would expand giving rise to novelties such as cabarets, nickelodeons, and Times Square. Primary Documents Municipal Consolidation ·Meeting at 216 Broadway, one man invited, George William Curtis did not attend but sent a speech in which he expresses his gratitude toward his invitation. He also talks about the consolidation project and how he has not noticed any `conversations pertaining to the topic ·Paul H. Kretzschmar was against consolidation. He sent a long communication opposing consolidation that he believed would be a blow out principal of home rule. ·Anthony R Dyett, was in favor of consolidation. He wanted to show how “a New York man could benefit from consolidation.” He also hoped that if Brooklyn were part of NY the difference in property values would decrease. ·Henry W. Slocum was also in favor of consolidation because he thought it would be good for the moral and political good of the community. ·E.A. Bradfordbelieved that consolidation would bring salvation to NY. ·President Green introduced a bill to Albany to bring about the consolidation, and the commission declared in favor of the bill. Now for Greater New York ·Meeting were held in order to make plans for consolidation which was to result in a “greater New York.” ·Acknowledgement is due to Andrew H. Green and his associates for two subjects which have done well in binding together the citizens of the metropolitan community. ·The first subject worthy of praise was an election which brought a number of legislatures in favor of consolidation to Albany. ·The second subject was the completion of a bill, believed to bring to accomplishment the project of a “greater New York.” ·The bill provided for a simple and easy way to bring before the people interested the topic of consolidation. ·Those affected property wise were able to vote for or against consolidation. ·The legislature can let the people vote on the situation but is the overriding authority with the ability to do whatever it sees fit. ·Thebill doesn’t reserve the Consolidation Commission the right to draw a charter for “greater New York” ·(Parts of the “greater New York”) ·The people of New York are allowed only to decide whether the new areas in the bill would be a part of New York. Self-Government for Cities ·The most radical suggestion on the topic of self-government comes from Gov. Campbell’s annual message to the legislature of Ohio. In such message he expresses that the solution to the problem of continual patching would be to let the cities govern themselves without any outside interference. For this to be carried out he recommended an amendment to the constitution which would enable the people of any city to call a charter convention. ·If there were to be self-government it would test whether or not the people were capable of being in control of their own affairs. ·The intelligent and Capable citizens could acquire and maintain control and do what is good for the community. · The Future Metropolis ·At a recent meeting Mr. Green had a few suggestions on the topic of consolidation. ·In everything but name and political organization, this community is one. ·The metropolitan area is one in interest and destiny, a field of common activity on which the prosperity of the whole depends. There is no difference in rights or interest by people separated by lines of jurisdiction. ·Consolidation would stimulate various activities, such as, the bridging and tunneling of waters which divide the metropolis. Consolidation would be able to ease communication and facility of intercourse by both land and water and this would lead to growth and prosperity. ·To bring this population together under one system of administration, properly devised for the regulation of affairs belonging to the whole community and its various parts, would undoubtedly in the long run be productive of great improvement methods and results. The Greater New York (1898 Consolidation plan) ·The Greater New York bill came into the senate in Albany, January 25, 1898. It was brought by Mr. Aspinall. ·The bill was sent to Senator Aspinall by the Municipal Consolidation Commission of New York. Consolidation was in such high favor that the petitions for it contained over 20,000 signatures and also there were many more in favor. Because of the bill the refusal of any town affected to vote in favor of consolidation will not affect the general purpose of the bill. ·(This paragraph talks about the territory referred to in the law) ·The electors in the district affected shall vote upon the question of annexation at the next general election with ballots specially provided.
GothamImperial City- secondary sources
Topic- Celebration over the city’s new internal linkage/ merged cities.
Details
- In 1897 at midnight (New Year’s) the nation’s first-and forth-largest cities would merge into a super-city, greater NY. (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx)
- Thousands of New Yorkers cascaded to lower Manhattan streets in celebration despite the cold
- Other Metropolises had been engaging in similar combinations, but New York’s would be the greatest
Topic- The master of ceremonies was not Mayor Strong it was William Randolph Hearst who stepped in and took the lead.
Details
- Mayor Strong suggested a funeral service for the old city rather than a jamboree for the new one , Hearst had stepped in to volunteer as producer and ringmaster
- Hearst raised funds from his own pocket mostly purchasing fireworks, marching and singing societies.
- Crowds formed in Union Square prepared to accompany the long line of brilliantly illuminated floats down to City Hall
Topic- The road to Consolidation (merge) Eve had not been an easy one
Details
- Some Brooklynites felt like the victims of imperial expansion they had tried and failed to halt
- Tammy Hall was undecided , despite that Croker and company would control the new colossus
What is Tammy Hall?
- Even the consolidation’s sponsors, the businessmen and professionals over at the Chamber of Commerce and Citizens Union were apprehensive about their future
Topic- Manhattan’s dominance over Brooklyn had continued even after it became a city
- Manhattan first gained dominance when the Dongan Charter and Montgomerie Charters granted it domain over the East River
- When Brooklyn gained city status in 1830, NY maintained its privileges
- But eventually Brooklyn’s community leaders successfully demanded independence
Topic- In 1857, the state combined Manhattan and Brooklyn’s police, fire and health departments into joint metropolitan boards.
- It was in the course of pursuing Haussmannesque authority for the Central Park Commission.
- People hoped the merger of the departments might evolve into a more systematic consolidation
- Green hoped to convince the Westchester and uptown property owners that comprehensive development was in their common interest. He hoped that by merging the two cities it allowed for the developing of bridges, roads, and sewers on both sides of the Harlem River.
ANNEXATION AND ITS ENEMIES PG 2
Topic- Proposal that Manhattan should annex the portion of the mainland just across the Harlem River
- Green alluded what was the obvious end point of such a proposal: forming a metropolitan out of the distinct political entities grouped around the harbor.
Who is this Andrew Green?
- It was desirable to bring the city of NY and County of Kings, a part of Westchester County and part of Queens and Richmond, including suburbs of the city, under one common municipal government (city), to be arranged in departments under a single executive head.
Topic- Green’s plans short-circuited by Tweed’s city charter
- Tweed abolished the state boards and deprived Green of his power
- Following Green’s logic, he gave his new Department of Public Parks the power to street mapping into West Farms and Morrisania and eastward into the Bronx River.
Who is Tweed?
What is street mapping and how does it help Tweed?
- Many powerful residents had their interests intertwined with Manhattan and supported full scale annexation.
- They wanted to build connecting bridges, and make Port Morris a major transportation hub.
Topic- The people of Manhattan had divisive feelings about the annexation
- The people protested the notion of paying to enhance the life of suburban commuters
- The people balked (retreated) at Bronx competitors, objections were alleviated (eased) when local property owners agreed to shoulder half of the improvement costs.
- Opponents countered that annexation would corral (enclose; hold) the fleeing middle class back into the taxpaying fold and provide room for downtown to expand and boost upper Manhattan’s real estate values.
- Annexation passed on Jan 1, 1874 and the city’s territory jumped from 14,000 to 22,000 acres with 30,000 new citizens.
Topic- Consolidation outlook surfaced in Brooklyn.
- In 1874, property owners, developers, and business men formed Municipal Union Society of the City of Brooklyn and the County of Kings.
- They sought to merge the 2 great cities (Man.) and 5 county towns to enhance property values, end boundary disputes, and sustain the areas’ commercial supremacy.
- Consolidation was defeated in the Senate however
Topic- Andrew Haswell Green’s bridge projects
- Green was one of the original commissioners of the Brooklyn Bridge.
- Green helped to get a bridge thrown across the Harlem River in 1886
- In 1890, he was appointed to a commission charged with planning a railroad bridge across Hudson.
Topic- 1880 census’ volumes on social statistics
- Suggested that a greater city had in effect already come into being
- Also said that the population was separated by “physical and political lines” that had little influence on the character of the people, their industries, and their modes of life.
“IMPERIAL DESTINY” PG 3
Topic- A statistical consolidation had been wrought after the Henry George campaign
- The campaign was jolted by the challenge of the radical and labor movements in NYC
- George’s campaign joined Green’s campaign and George’s project began to rumble toward realization
Topic- NY’s Chamber of Commerce urged that Brooklyn be added to NY.
- They expressed concern that the port (NY) was losing ground to more efficient facilities of New Orleans, Baltimore, Boston, and Philadelphia.
- And between 1880 and 1890 NY did suffer a decline in the country’s exports and imports.
- Efforts to coordinate port administration, build new bridges and improve city services were ruined by divided political jurisdictions (influence)
- To aid planning piers, warehouses and transportation the chamber urged putting NY and Brooklyn under “one general scheme of municipal rule”
Topic- In 1888 the Real Estate Record and Builders Guide came out for consolidation.
- It urged that only a centralized authority could push through the improvements that would boost land values and provide insurance companies, savings banks, and estate trustees with profitable investment opportunities.
Topic- In 1888, Mayor Hewitt, a Chamber of Commerce Stalwart issued a proposal for a vast and coordinated program of public improvements.
- He said that imagination can place no bounds to the future growth of the city in business, wealth, and blessings of civilizations.
- Since the harbor was protected from injury the channels of its approach straightened and deepened.
- With its wharves and docks improved, its streets paved and cleansed, attractive parks, and a system of taxation, it would be free it come and go “as the air of heaven”.
Topic-People feared that inaction of the “imperial urban vision” would leave the field to rival empire builders.
I don’t understand what they mean by that
- Chicago was one of the rival empire builders
- In 1880, Chicago swallowed up 133 square miles of suburban terrain
- In 1890, a census revealed that Chicago’s Midwestern metropolis (population 1,100,000) was catching up quickly to Manhattan’s.
Topic- What happens if Chicago or any other city had a larger population than NY
- European banking and export firms would shift their American branches to that city.
- Corporate headquarters would soon follow along with professional firms.
- Manufacturing would steal away
- NY’s property values would decline
- It would be similar to what happened to Philadelphia, once of America’s most important city, had been overshadowed by its Hudson River rival.
Topic- If Chicago’s population exceeded NY’s it would relegate NY to secondary status in other places.
- NY’s art, culture, and politics would become secondary status
- This fear arose in 1890, when Congress let Midwesterners host the celebration of Columbus’ voyage. The 2 colossi had been competing for that furiously and defeat for NY was another indicator of the metropolitan decline.
Topic- immigration
- Immigration was important but inconstant and slow
- Chicago like Paris and London had become greater and prosperous by accumulation of number, expansion, annexation, and consolidation
GREEN’S DREAM OF NEW YORK
Topic- Andrew Haswell established a Greater New York Commission
- The Greater New York Commission was established to examine the issue of consolidation
- The new body elected Green president and Stranahan vice president
- In a series of addresses and memorials Green came up with arguments on his behalf
Topic- Green began at the beginning; he described what it was like when the European settlers had settled there
- The three islands the Europeans settled (Manhattan, Long, and Staten) had close “indissoluble” relations with each other.
- During the fall, natural unity gave way to artificial divisions: states, cities, counties. Waterfalls were once “bonds of union”, but became “symbols of division”
Topic- Green then continued to describe how it was absurd to treat rivers as barriers.
- Green pointed out that chief cities of the world, London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Prague were municipally and commercially unified by rivers.
- Under existing political arrangements protection of navigable rivers was the concern of all.
- The tides marched through all the municipals collecting and distributing everywhere.
Topic- Harbor level problems that could not be attended to by municipalities.
- Garbage smoke, stench, bad drainage, noxious manufactories could not be fixed by municipalities.
- In the absence of a super government that could make a corrective plan for the entire port, the area would continue to suffer.
Topic- The situation above was unnecessary and preventable.
- Maybe long ago when there wasn’t enough c commerce to go around there might’ve been sense in hoarding territorial advantages.
- But now with benefits and interests becoming interlocking, the prosperity of one territory promoted the prosperity of other territories.
- Brooklyn’s lawyers did more business in NY courts than in their own.
- Merchants mansions were paid for with the profits they had made from sales\ trade in NY
Topic- The common problem Brooklyn and NY shared was the port’s vulnerability to modern foreign fleets.
- Local divisions only impeded the combined effort that alone could induce the national government to provide adequate defenses.
Topic- Access to the interior was another common predicament
- Green reminded people that NY had become the nation’s chief emporium because it commanded foreign commerce and controlled routes to continental markets.
- Norfolk’s was a better harbor but it remained a summer watering place because it lacked inland connection.
- New connections were essential; crucially a bridge across the Hudson, a greater NY could muster the resources to act without waiting for state of national governments.
Topic- Planning the city’s physical development was as critical as arranging its commercial future.
- NY had to prepare for the immigrants that would clearly be flooding in the future from overseas and countrywide.
- Urbanization was rapidly speeding
- If the process of incorporating this population was left to the pell- mell development (I Don’t Get That) the results would be as inadequate to the needs of future generations as the colonial era streets of Manhattan were to the present one.
Topic- Planning the whole area a single unit, like what Green had in mind but smaller, would ensure better relations with centers and suburbs.
- Only if a greater city controlled its outlying territories could reserve them for healthful parks, rather than having them eaten up piecemeal.
- Only a Greater City could solve the difficult question of taxation of non residents.
Topic- As Green noted, lawbreakers were “cosmopolitan”
- If taxpayers could easily cross city lines so could criminals.
- Only a unified metropolitan police command check them
Topic- Green believed that NY was in danger from modern combinations of capital like monopolies.
- Green was extremely wary about the growth of corporations.
Topic- The rise and impact of monopolies was nowhere more evident than in cities.
- A citizen buys food from one monopoly, water from another, light from a third, and heat from a fourth, works on the road of a fifth, is paid in cash from a sixth, has his life insured by a seventh, and is buried in the grounds of an eighth
- Green insisted that modern forms of corporation be regulated and controlled b y governmental intervention.
Topic- The consequences of insufficient purview were most apparent in the case of Green’s bête moiré
- Railroad corporations one shared with merchants, populists, labor unions, and social grospelers
- While it was true that their lines made cities possible by allowing them to draw upon the resources and markets of vast hinterland
- They also forced their way into cities plowing through any area of their choosing, laying tracks with no regard for public welfare and laying tracks with regard for street patterns.
Topic-The only interests that were against consolidation were people who carry on a war against organized forces and capitalism.
- Green had nothing much to say about issues like slums and sweatshops that agitated working people
Topic- Green was hopeful about the future outcome of the war between the corporate power and the power of the people because it showed evolutionary laws at work
- Evolutionary laws at work were always found in the history of great cities especially NY
- Those developments were equally part of mankind’s transition from barbarianism to civilization.
Topic- There were no guarantees that “scheme of civilization is beyond the hazards of deterioration”
- Faulty government divisions jeopardized progress.
- NY still had “sachems” who clung to traditions of barbarian times
What re sachems?
- Only through struggle could evolutionary destiny be attained
Topic- Green urged NY to recognize and grasp its imperial destiny.
- He realized that there were those that believed his unification project was irrational.
- NY had become the second city in the world that refused to claim its title
- Green had said that cities were factors of empire. The imperial city won a honorable renown which they cannot avoid accepting.
IMPERIUM OR COLONY PG 7
Topic- Green and his Greater NY commissioners proceeded to map out the precise dimensions of their proposed super city
- Thy included all the NY States territories fronting on the harbor, added enough of Queens to embrace potential rival ports such as Jamaica and Little Neck bays, an threw in enough Kings and Westchester counties to provide housing.
Topic- Oppositions to the merger
- Upstate Republicans who feared creating a monster metropolis.
- Tammy politicians also shuddered at the thought of trying to organize such a vast territory.
- Northern Manhattan and North Side (Bronx) developers, who dreaded a diversion of resources to Canarsie and Flatlands.
- The most obdurate opponents came from Brooklyn itself, more precisely the Angelo- Protestant community in Brooklyn Heights.
Topic- The Angelo- Protestant community had a peculiar relationship with Manhattan.
- Middle class Brooklynites liked to think that embodied New England virtues. They favored cities of homes and churches that were free from millionaires and the fashionably wicked ways of 5th Avenue, free from huddled immigrant masses, the town prided itself on its modern cultural appearances: parks, opera houses, clubs, educational institutes, museums, newspapers, and a historical society.
- Keeping Manhattan at rivers length would preserve this lovely way of life.
Topic- The amount of Protestants in each city.
- 52.75% in New York to 40% in Brooklyn
Topic- New buildings in Brooklyn
- Montague Street’s residential buildings had given way to banks, real estate offices, insurance companies and law firms.
- New public buildings were everywhere
- Fulton Street in 1893 was crowded with hotels, warehouses, newspaper offices, theatres, and stores.
- Real estate values had zoomed to high levels.
- A new satellite commercial district had emerged between City Hall and Flatbush Avenue, thick with department stores, power stations, fire headquarters, libraries, and churches.
Topic- Piers remained crucial to the booming Brooklyn.
- In a week in 1886, the ships along Brooklyn’s wharves and piers had carried a combined cargo of roughly 45,000 tons, compared to the mere 122,000 or so tons
- By 1897 an average of four thousand ships unloads cargoes annually
Topic- Manufacturing and the processing of agricultural commodities reached record levels.
- Half the sugar consumed in the United States was refined in Brooklyn
- Almost all the oil for the Atlantic seaboard was refined in Williamsburg and Long Island City.
- Bakeries and breweries drew grain elevators with four times the capacity of Manhattan’s and its myriad ironworks and factories made Brooklyn the fourth largest industrial city in the country.
Topic- The economic expansion that commenced with the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge
- The city’s population had gone from 570,000 in 1880 to 800,000 in 1890, and by 1894 it was approaching 900,000.
- This demographic explosion had in turn generated a frenzied building boom. Williamsburg was thriving
- Greenpoint’s population had tripled between 1880 and 1890
- New Utrecht, only recently a farming town, had been transformed by the arrival of the Second avenue trolley, and thousands of houses were going up in real estate developments
Topic- Most people presiding over this Brooklyn and the run of prosperity wanted consolidation because without it they knew it was all going to halt.
- Merchants, Manufactures, hotel proprietors, bankers, real estate developers, large retailers, warehousers, lawyers, speculators, manufactures, , and streetcar company presidents came together at a public meeting in the Real Estate Exchange and formed the Brooklyn Consolidation League in 1893 to fight for ties with Manhattan.
Topic- The Brooklyn Bridge was a casualty of its own wild success.
- In 1890 over forty million people used it, a quarter million each day.
- Men fought women and children for places in cars and the weaker were forced to walk over or take the ferry.
Topic- There was no through transport across the Brooklyn Bridge
- Manhattan transit cars traversed the bridge, dumped their passengers, turned around and returned to Manhattan and vice versa for Brooklyn trolleys.
- Neither the metropolitan nor the BRT was prepared to establish the coherent, integrated, vastly expanded rapid transit system that was key to keeping real estate values surging.
Topic- The water crisis in Brooklyn was that Brooklyn was about to run dry.
- In 1896 its water system was delivering 94 million gallons a day. Sober estimates suggested demand would reach that level within three years
- Some people were already experiencing shortages
- Wells had been sunk down to suck water from layers of gravel 150 feet deep, and the city was pumping in 50 million gallons a day from wells and streams of Long Island, but the remaining expedient was about to be foreclosed
Topic- In January 1896 Alfred Tredway White, urged Brooklyn to buy land in central Suffolk
- He suggested that Eastern Long Island’s streams and watershed beneath its pine barrens might bring in an additional 80 million gallons a day.
- Suffolk’s farmers, baymen, and homeowners had no intention of letting that happen having witnessed the ecological impact extractions to date.
- In June 1896 Suffolk went to Albany and got a law preventing Brooklyn from drawing off its water without the approval of the majority of the county supervisors.
- Without a new source of supply Brooklyn could look forward to outbreaks of epidemic or an unquenchable fire that might lay half the city in ashes.
Topic- New York on the other hand had a large supply of water.
- The original Croton Aqueduct’s capacity of 90 million gallons a day had been exceeded by the early 1880s.
- Thanks to Green’s lobbying efforts , a New Croton Aqueduct had been authorized in 1883 and began in 1885 and completed in 1893
- It had already expanded carrying capacity to 300 million gallons daily and plans were afoot to build new dams and reservoirs
What is Croton Aqueduct?
- Croton’s 90 million and Bronx River’s 20 million could supply 400 million gallons per day enough for 4 million people or a million more than the combined population of Brooklyn and NY.
- Immediate relief via connecting pipes under the East River was only a consolidation away.
Topic- Development in Brooklyn had required immense expenditures on roads, lighting, sewer mains and the like but Brooklyn soon wouldn’t be able to afford any of those.
- The post bridge expansion had been very costly for Brooklyn had been very costly for Brooklyn and it was about to be burdened with the debts of several Kings County towns.
- As a result Brooklyn’s debts were very high.
- Some banks had already rejected its bonds. The depression was not helping its revenues, and it seemed that rather than expanding services Brooklyn would have to lay off many workers.
Topic- The problem was that Brooklyn’s narrow revenue base was composed essentially of residential housing.
- In 1891 Brooklyn’s population was fully half that of New York’s but it had only a fourth as much taxable property.
- NY was home to big corporations even companies that did business in Brooklyn paid taxes in Manhattan
Topic- In 1894 NY’s debt was still below its limit while Brooklyn had been forced to limit its capita spending
- Brooklyn’s capita spending was $9.75 a head while NY’s was $22.46 and still raising taxes steadily.
- Brooklynites paid an average$2.85 per hundred dollars of property to Manhattanites’ $1.82
- To citizens who said that the wealthy could afford higher taxes, the BCL countered that the owners would pass such increases on to renters, tradesmen, clerks, and shopgirls
Topic- Plans that could be used to lower taxes in Brooklyn.
- Consolidation would allow construction of another cross river pipeline.
- The restaurant money flow would fertilize bridges, tunnels, waterworks, parks, roadways, rapid transit, and jobs.
- Edward C. Graves pointed out all this in his BCL pamphlet called “How Taxes in Brooklyn Can Be Reduced One-Half”
Topic- BCL argued that unification would not bring the “horde of plug-ugly politicians that control New York”
- The combinations of the virtuous of Brooklyn with the best men of Manhattan would overwhelm the politicos
- Greater NY would be so immense that no ring could possibly control it.
- And for those who feared the evils of Manhattan’s slums and costs of welfare, Edward Bradford of BCL wrote there was no escaping such ills in an event
THE GREAT DEBATE
Topic- In March 1893 William Gaynor led a 200 man BCL delegation on board a charter train to Albany
- They all presented all these weighty arguments to the legislature, only to see the measure killed by Brooklyn’s representatives who took orders from their boss McLaughlin.
- The BCL plunged into politics merging with the fall’s Good Government, anti- McLaughlin and anti -McKane.
- Both causes triumphed and the new delegation of Brooklyn’s representatives was solidly behind consolidation.
- So Andrew Green submitted a bill in February 1894 that called for submitting the issue to a nonbinding referendum which sailed through both houses.
Topic- The pros and cons took their cases to the electoral marketplace and the battle ground widened.
- In Manhattan among those forces calling for a yes vote were the City Club, the Good Government Clubs, leading commercial associations, and most major papers.
- Adding to consolidation’s appeal among these wealthy men was the argument advanced by municipal efficiency advocates like Albert Shaw
Topic- Consolidation was presented as a device for achieving the circumscription of democracy
- Municipal power was urged to be invested in taxpayers only.
- Simone Sterne, a lawyer as a forefront on consolidationist advocates argued that they must stop organizing on the basis of arbitrary population and organize on the basis of interests.
Topic- For Manhattan masses, proponents stressed the benefits of lebensraum.
What is lebensraum?
- Better off clerks, bookkeepers, salesmen, mechanics, and operatives, suggested the Real Estate would be able to flee congested apartments to modest free standing cottages available in Brooklyn at $25 a month
- While this would not eliminate the slums, it would separate the “industrious and self respecting poor” from the less regenerate people that surround them.
Topic- In 1894, to extend the influence of Good Government over the rest of Kings County, Brooklyn called for the annexation of the 17th century Dutch and English colonies that still had their independence.
- Gaining control of Gravesend’s Coney was a major concern.
- They wanted to rescue the island from barbarism and that would mean that it would be made part of the limits and jurisdiction of Brooklyn.
Topic- Passage of the referendum in the BCL
- Given the BCL’s multidimensional and extremely well funded campaign, it appeared that even in Brooklyn the referendum was heading for early passage.
- A BCL canvass of selected districts tat spring showed 64 percent of voters in favors of consolidation.
Topic- Then came the Lexow investigation of corruption among Manhattan’s police and politicians.
- Many Brooklynites backed away from this idea
- Between May and November of 1894 the eposes dragged on, hundreds of columns and cartoons appeared in the anti-consolidation press warning of the horrors that would flow from incorporation into a Tammy run super city.
Topic- In November 1894 the referendum went to the voters in Manhattan
- In Manhattan 96,938 voted for consolidation, 59,959 against.
- The pro forces did best in upper and middle class districts but did worst in poor districts and Tammy strongholds.
Topic- the referendum went to voters in Queens , Long Island, and Staten Island.
- Over 60% of electors voted for consolidation with the greatest tallies in urbanized areas closest to Manhattan
- Long Island was counting on reaping such benefits as Blackwell Island’s bridge, a multitude of new streets, and the assumption of Manhattan of its substantial debt.
- On Staten Island 5,531 were for consolidation 1, 5?? Against it.
Topic- The referendum went to voters in eastern districts of the Bronx
- Mount Vernon declined
- A larger majority of Westchester said no, but only by one vote
- Eastchester, Pelham and the remainder of the territory said yes.
Topic- The referendum went to voters in Brooklyn
- It passed in Brooklyn too
- The final tally was 64,744 for merger and 64,467 against
- Ironically it was the newly conquered colonies of Gravesend and New Utrecht that overcame the negative majority of Brooklyn’s imperial center
Topic- After the election the opponents formed a League of Loyal Citizens
- The League assembled their own bankers, merchants, landlords, reformers, and clergymen
- They launched a campaign to block consolidation at state level.
- In pamphlets, leaflets, circulars, and a weekly bulletin called Greater Brooklyn, the League attacked Manhattan as a social and political failure
- They expressed doubts that a Manhattan dominated Greater NY would never distribute Brooklyn of its fair share of anything.
Topic- The things the League fought for and against
- The League appealed to the traditions of self government
- They were against a centralizing state.
- They sought to anger middle class citizens against big business
Topic- The League also appealed to municipal patriotism
- They recalled the days when Washington’s army saved the Union and defeated the consolidation attempted against American liberty.
- They denounced consolidationist- minded gentlemen as people who considered the city as a mere convenience on the order of a trolley car
What are they trying to say with this comparison?
Topic- The League’s effect on the referendum
- In 1895 the league claimed a membership of 50,000, stormed Albany and succeeded in setting aside the referendum’s verdict
- The merger movement, apart from a decision to bring the eastern Bronx on board, was dead.
Topic- The Bill of 1896
- In 1896, Platt rammed a bill through the legislature calling for the consolidation of the territories Green’s commission had proposed
- This bill was to take effect in January 1, 1898
- The new law empowered Republican Governor to appoint a nine member panel to draft a new charter
- As required the bill was submitted to mayors of the affected cities.
Topic- The bill of 1896 was vetoed
- Brooklyn’s Frederick Wurster vetoed it
- Mayor Strong also vetoed it along with the Chamber of Commerce that were allied to the Strong administration
- It was believed that the deal was too favorable to Brooklyn
- Maybe Manhattan payers would get stuck with the tab for improvements in the Bronx or be forced to shoulder debts racked up by villages in Queens.
Topic- Platt pressed ahead relentlessly with the re-passage of the bill
- Levi Morton wanted to be president and Thomas Collier Platt was the only man who could help him with the nomination at the Republican Convention in 5 weeks
- Morton signed the bill on May 11, 1896
- Greater NY had arrived but nobody had any idea what it would look like.
Topic- The governor appointed the Charter Commission
- It consisted of 10 Republicans, and 5 Democrats
- It included both notable consolidationists like Andrew Haswell Green (though he would fall sick and be unable to participate in the drafting process.)
- The commission was made of mostly lawyers, politicians, and men of property.
Topic- The commission came up with an immense document that served as a series of compromises.
- It strengthened the mayor and the Board of Estimate
- It retired the Common Council and replaced it with a 2 chambered municipal assembly
- This was all intended to satisfy the desire of the League by creating a decentralized, local self government.
- It also gave boss Platt 4 potential???? (Cut off) outside Manhattan should Tammy manage to hold on to New York County.
Topic- Public reactions of the charter commissioner’s new changes
- The commissioners pleased home rulers by shifting the right to grant railway contracts/franchises from the state legislature to the municipal assembly and permitting the city to impose conditions on owners of shoreline property.
- Developers appreciated the creation of a Board of public improvements and their public works throughout the city.
- Housing reformers applauded the charter’s establishment of a uniform building code for all 5 boroughs.
- And the reformers were delighted when Commissioner Seth Low wrote in a provision that explicitly banned an outdoor relief (apart from subsides to the blind) including the free handouts of fuel supplies they had been trying to outlaw.
- The charter would force Richmond and Queens to terminate their programs, and Manhattan to cut off coal.
- After one last mayoral veto from William Strong had been overcome, the Charter of Greater New York was presented to Governor Frank Black for his signature which he affixed on May 5, 1897
- By the rainy day of December 31, 1897 the city was poised for transformation.
Topic- Effects of consolidation
- JP Morgan and his rival companies would consolidate rival companies into giant corporations
- A merger movement from 1897 to 1904 would forge the modern American capitalist economy, of which NY would be the headquarters
- Greater NY would undertake mammoth building projects, creating the communications of bridges, railways, water tunnels, and power lines, that would consolidation a constitutional artifact
- Its populace would be swollen with massive immigration, move along with new rapid transit lines, filling out Brooklyn, creating an instant city in the Bronx.
- Culture wars would continue, with upper and middle class consolidating their museums and libraries
- The city’s commercial culture would expand giving rise to novelties such as cabarets, nickelodeons, and Times Square.
Primary Documents
Municipal Consolidation
· Meeting at 216 Broadway, one man invited, George William Curtis did not attend but sent a speech in which he expresses his gratitude toward his invitation. He also talks about the consolidation project and how he has not noticed any `conversations pertaining to the topic
· Paul H. Kretzschmar was against consolidation. He sent a long communication opposing consolidation that he believed would be a blow out principal of home rule.
· Anthony R Dyett, was in favor of consolidation. He wanted to show how “a New York man could benefit from consolidation.” He also hoped that if Brooklyn were part of NY the difference in property values would decrease.
· Henry W. Slocum was also in favor of consolidation because he thought it would be good for the moral and political good of the community.
· E.A. Bradford believed that consolidation would bring salvation to NY.
· President Green introduced a bill to Albany to bring about the consolidation, and the commission declared in favor of the bill.
Now for Greater New York
· Meeting were held in order to make plans for consolidation which was to result in a “greater New York.”
· Acknowledgement is due to Andrew H. Green and his associates for two subjects which have done well in binding together the citizens of the metropolitan community.
· The first subject worthy of praise was an election which brought a number of legislatures in favor of consolidation to Albany.
· The second subject was the completion of a bill, believed to bring to accomplishment the project of a “greater New York.”
· The bill provided for a simple and easy way to bring before the people interested the topic of consolidation.
· Those affected property wise were able to vote for or against consolidation.
· The legislature can let the people vote on the situation but is the overriding authority with the ability to do whatever it sees fit.
· The bill doesn’t reserve the Consolidation Commission the right to draw a charter for “greater New York”
· (Parts of the “greater New York”)
· The people of New York are allowed only to decide whether the new areas in the bill would be a part of New York.
Self-Government for Cities
· The most radical suggestion on the topic of self-government comes from Gov. Campbell’s annual message to the legislature of Ohio. In such message he expresses that the solution to the problem of continual patching would be to let the cities govern themselves without any outside interference. For this to be carried out he recommended an amendment to the constitution which would enable the people of any city to call a charter convention.
· If there were to be self-government it would test whether or not the people were capable of being in control of their own affairs.
· The intelligent and Capable citizens could acquire and maintain control and do what is good for the community.
·
The Future Metropolis
· At a recent meeting Mr. Green had a few suggestions on the topic of consolidation.
· In everything but name and political organization, this community is one.
· The metropolitan area is one in interest and destiny, a field of common activity on which the prosperity of the whole depends. There is no difference in rights or interest by people separated by lines of jurisdiction.
· Consolidation would stimulate various activities, such as, the bridging and tunneling of waters which divide the metropolis. Consolidation would be able to ease communication and facility of intercourse by both land and water and this would lead to growth and prosperity.
· To bring this population together under one system of administration, properly devised for the regulation of affairs belonging to the whole community and its various parts, would undoubtedly in the long run be productive of great improvement methods and results.
The Greater New York (1898 Consolidation plan)
· The Greater New York bill came into the senate in Albany, January 25, 1898. It was brought by Mr. Aspinall.
· The bill was sent to Senator Aspinall by the Municipal Consolidation Commission of New York. Consolidation was in such high favor that the petitions for it contained over 20,000 signatures and also there were many more in favor. Because of the bill the refusal of any town affected to vote in favor of consolidation will not affect the general purpose of the bill.
· (This paragraph talks about the territory referred to in the law)
· The electors in the district affected shall vote upon the question of annexation at the next general election with ballots specially provided.